Fox At The Front
by Cy-Fox Unit
Summary: Fifty years ago, Maria Robotnik was shot on the Space Colony ARK and left for dead. Managing to make it off of the doomed space colony, her transport crash landed on Earth. Little did she know, she had awakened her salvation, a Mark XXXIII Bolo, a sentient planetary defense tank that disappeared from its post in a storm. Together, they must defend Earth from the Black Arms.


Fox at the Front

Unknown Date, Unknown Time

"Goodbye, S-Shadow-"

The young girl had been uttering those words in her weakened voice over and over within my Command Center. My sensors reach out and assess her condition. There was severe damage to the human's heart and left lung, the cause being two .45 caliber jacketed hollow-point rounds. She was found by in the wreckage of a transport that was near me when my consciousness returned. Somehow, despite her injuries, she was able to come close enough to my hull. Carefully, I had directed my self-repair and loading drones to pull her in to safety. She looked to be around twelve years old.

My mind swelled with rage for a microsecond as I considered what had happened to her. This act that brought her to me was a betrayal to my core principles. I was constructed, like my other brethren to protect Humanity. Even at the cost of our very being. This was homicide, violent action that was human on human. At that, a violent action on an innocent human girl with no means to defend herself. If I had a corporeal body, I would have held her close to me. I would have attended to her myself.

The most I could do was direct the medic drone that would look after my Commander, who was long absent. For reasons unknown, I found myself on this Earth-like planet after previously driving through a violent but seemingly normal storm on Mobius. I had no idea how long I was actually here. But now I had a duty, I had a purpose; this dying girl. The drone wasted no time, its arms springing out in surgical mode. I could feel her consciousness wane from the drugs that it injected into her.

Silently, I watched the drone from its perspective, advising its simple mind with my volumes of expertise. The person whose personality I had modeled myself after was a Mobian, in fact the first cyborg of their kind, constructed in similar dire circumstances in the 22nd century. His body was broken by violence and was made whole again by robotics. He had become a respected warrior and his example held true with the ideals of the Dinochrome Brigade. His companion and creator was a human woman, arguably the mother of military cybernetics.

It took time but the major trauma was repaired. The drone had determined her blood type and replaced what was lost. Analyzing her blood chemistry, a new problem arose. The girl had a genetic illness, one that severely weakened her immune system. The Command Center was for the most part, sterile, but infection was still a possibility. Doubling up with the trauma that she underwent, she could still die. Only one thing could be done, she had to be moved to the Survival Chamber that was meant for my Commander and put into stasis.

The order was given and the medic drone stayed by her side whiles my loyal loader and repair drones moved her. The loader slid its scoop under her back and lifted her up to the horizontal Survival Chamber as I opened it. Then it slowly lowered her down. The framework adjusted for her size and closed in around her, fixing a respirator to her face, while the drugs and chemicals started to pump in through tubes that attached to her neck and spine, regrettably tearing into her blue tunic. With that done, I split part of my attention to studying her blood chemistry and illness.

The remainder of me cast itself out, beginning to assimilate information from the planet's communications satellites.

Inactivity is not acceptable for a Unit of the Line of the Dinochrome Brigade.

50 Subjective Years Later

My young passenger responded exceptionally to my care. I was able to identify her illness and attacked her biological Enemy as feverishly as I would attack a corporeal one. It would try to hide itself in reservoirs but my resolve was tireless. Once it was eradicated, I had brought her mind partially out of stasis, making use of the neural link meant for my Commander.

"_Where am I?"_ She had asked in the darkness, her first conscious thoughts after all of this time.

"_Safe"_ I replied. The mental feedback was like a soft gasp. _"Do not be afraid, human. I mean no harm to you. I was built to serve Humanity."_

"_Built?_ _Are you a creation of my grandfather?"_

"_No._" Though my answer was terse, I kept my tone friendly. There was an opportunity to learn who she was. "_Who is your grandfather?"_ I asked.

"_He's the Chief Scientist of the ARK, Professor Gerald Robotnik,"_ she replied, the initial fear dissipating. This was an alien world, but I still cross-referenced the name with my database. My systems alerted me to a discrepancy. Professor Gerald Robotnik was indeed known to me, he was the Chief Scientist of the ARK, but he did not have a granddaughter this young. The ARK orbited Earth, but the geographical features of this planet were definitely not Earth. I pushed the thought aside and decided to probe further. I did not detect any sign of duplicity.

"_What is your name?"_ I simply asked.

"_Maria_," Her response also raised a new discrepancy. Maria Robotnik, yes _that_ name was known to me too. She was the companion to my namesake. She had lived a full life alongside him and to my knowledge, had been in a few skirmishes, but not this young, not this badly injured either. Could I have actually been shifted to the past? To another timeline? Her next thought broke my contemplation.

"_What's yours?"_

"_I am Bolo Mark XXXIII, Combat Unit D-2092, Unit MLS of the Line_. _My name is Miles, but my friends, my Commander call me Tails."_

"_So you're a robot?"_ she asked.

"_Actually I am a self-propelled tank that is powered by an artificial intelligence."_

"_Oh..like an Abrams?"_

The reference didn't even take a microsecond. _"Not quite, my operational scale does not merely cover territorial defense"_

"_What does it cover? What is your purpose?"_

If I were capable of it, I would have beamed. _"Total planetary defense"_

I decided to put Maria back under, the next phase of her recovery reliant upon acceleration of her body's aging process. I did not want her to endure any pain; she had had enough of that. As the drugs and nanomachines flooded her system, I kept a careful watch, as I always did. As her proportions changed, the Survival Chamber adjusted. It took several days, but I was able to advance her to adulthood, feeding her mind with knowledge, her psyche with reassurance.

When the time came, I released her from the framework and opened the Survival Chamber. The Command Center lit up so that she could see. No reason to waste power on lighting when she could not see, and my drones worked easily in light or dark. Maria climbed out of the chamber slowly, while my faithful loader rolled up to her side with one of my former Commander's jumpsuits, to replace her tunic. Self-consciously, she turned her back, which of course was conceptually useless, and climbed into it. Then she awkwardly walked towards the Commander's Station, adjusting to her lengthened legs.

Maria slowly settled down in the seat and looked around in awe at the information that suddenly popped up from its holo-projectors. She reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Miles?"

My voice rumbled throughout the entire hull. "Reporting,"

"Where exactly are we, right now?" she asked, staring at the displays. I checked Global Positioning and replied promptly. "We are in on top of a rock formation overlooking what is referred to as the Mystic Ruins." Her eyes widen as she looked at the feeds for my outer cameras. "How did you manage to get up there?!"

"Counter-grav systems allow me to ascend, at the cost of not being able to operate my battlescreens and main weapons," I replied. She tilted her head and flexed her fingers against her seat's armrests. "But why?"

"This location provides the best vantage point for me to seek and engage the Enemy"

"The Enemy?" The projectors caught her gaze again as I started to bring up information from what I had drawn from the sources that I retrieved data from over the last fifty years. A massive black comet appeared from different perspectives along with information about its occupants. I had gotten this largely from the orbiting space colony known as the ARK. The ARK that she had come from. At one point, Maria's eyes widened. "Wait! Stop there!"

The feeds froze on that of the man that she identified as her grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik. He seemed to speak with who I determined to be the commander of the Enemy comet or ship. "They know my Grandfather?" I scanned through the data again myself. "It appears that your grandfather worked alongside the Enemy in order to establish Project Shadow."

"Shadow," Maria leaned back into her seat and lowered her head. "So that's why GUN attacked. They were afraid that he was an alien weapon."

"That appears to be correct. I however do not approve of their method of handling the incident," I said with disgust creeping into my voice. "Firing upon the innocent and unarmed is dishonorable, and wasteful of human life." A small smile started to form on the woman's face. "You seem more human than they are, Miles. And you're a weapon."

"Technically I am Mobian," I pointed out.

"Right," She pressed her index finger to her forehead thoughtfully. "What makes you so certain that it will be here, at this time?"

"From what the data I went over said, it appears every fifty years. It takes that long to travel here with their engines."

"Do you think you can stop it?" she asked. I did a readiness assessment. I had a full load of armaments when I had travelled through that strange storm. "Three 200 centimeter Hellbores and four 240 centimeter howitzers serve as my primary armament. That is backed up by fourteen 20 centimeter Hellbores, ten 40 centimeter BL mortars and a VLS missile system. I believe I can provide sufficient defense for the planet. But I do need one thing."

"A Commander," Maria thought out loud, looking up at the ceiling.

"That is correct."

Maria lowered her gaze to the screens and then stood up to her feet, doing her best to slowly form a salute. "Maria Robotnik, Commander of Combat Unit D-2092, MLS of the Line reporting."

"Acknowledged Commander," I replied, warmth ran through my personality core as I changed the command recognition to her voice and biometrics. Maria leaned in towards the screens. "Maria's fine, Tails."

What first alerted me was the sudden shift in gravity as a large object suddenly appeared from nowhere. My sensors lit up and started to probe the new contact. It was the Black Comet! Maria was sleeping at her station. I turned the lights up and then changed their hue to combat red, filling the chamber with three alarm blasts. The woman jerked her head up and stared at the monitors. "What's happening Tails?"

"Somehow, the Black Comet has appeared earlier than what my plotted track was set for." I replied with an apologetic tone. "They were able to bridge the distance several months early." I continued to probe the comet, getting raw data that was considerably more helpful than what I had gotten from the ARK and the other sources. Suddenly, a red plume of gas mushroomed out from the bottom of the comet, expanding in the upper atmosphere. I closed all of the external seals, going into full hazard mode.

"What is that gas?" Maria asked, watching the cloud expand. I opened one of my VLS tubes and fired a drone up to the upper atmosphere. Once the missile's stage breaks away, it would be able to capture a sample, wire the information back to me and then self-destruct. The process only took about 30 seconds, but the cloud was getting larger.

"It appears to be a nerve gas of some sorts. Alien in origin of course," I explained. "Simulations suggest that it is meant to paralyze."

"Ingenious actually," she broke in. "They could reduce our numbers significantly to where they could just capture the planet." I agreed. It was a bloodless, opening move. But it was still an assault on Humanity, all the same. "What do you suggest, Maria?"

"Do you specifically need me to direct you, or are you able to make decisions if I give you permission?" She was not a trained commander, even with the information I pumped into her in her 50 year sleep.

"I am capable of directing myself, with your permission."

"Permission granted then, Tails. For my home."

"And for the honor of the regiment!" I barked, directing my Hellbores to point at the massive comet. Maria watched them move through the external camera feeds. She leaned in, squeezing the armrests of her seat.

"Target locked," I informed her. She didn't have to say it, but it was a time honored tradition. "Fire!"

My hull shook from the recoil and Maria winced from the sound of the Hellbores firing, even though I had dampened the actual sound to a tolerable level. Bolts of supercharged white-hot plasma streaked up in the sky, punching through the gas cloud and striking at the massive comet. Part of it shattered and the fragments started to rain down. I noticed something new, two smaller forms coming down to the atmosphere. They both seemed to float freely, one being a definite alien. It was black, with blood red tips on what I believed to be its ears. It was wearing robes, but had no discernible lower body. Chains with amulets of some unknown design hung from it.

The other was the being known as Shadow, from the ARK's archives. Seven familiar jewels floated around them as they seemed to be looking down at us. Maria's eyes widened as she leaned in closer. I magnified them so that they came up on full frame. She reached out and touched the image of the hedgehog. "Stop firing," she said softly.

I stopped at her command and waited. I waited and watched, as the two beings seemed to look at each other. I patched audio in, so that we could both hear what they were saying.

"-What is this Shadow? You told me G.U.N had defenses but they were nothing of this magnitude," The floating black being was the same that Gerald Robotnik spoke to, speaking in the same raspy voice. The hedgehog glared down at the Bolo. "I have not seen this before; it's probably a secret weapon. Its human made though. We have the Chaos Emeralds. It won't stand a chance against our combined efforts."

The robed being tilted its body back and uttered a low laugh. "You are wise, my apprentice." The emeralds began to form a ring in front of the two as they raised their hands and then cast them forward, beams connecting the ring and also crisscrossing within its diameter. A large beam started to form from its center and then lanced down, striking my hull. Damage output was close to that of a lower mark Bolo. My hull held, and my instincts told me to fire back. However, Maria had not given me the order yet.

Another beam struck out from their ring, this time widening and darkening in color. It looked like a swirl of black and blood red. Now the power level was comparable to my own weapons. My hull was holding, but now the plating was beginning to buckle. Maria fell down to the floor and drew her legs up into a fetal position, a strained cry of fear coming from her mouth. She was under duress, I was able to assert myself again. Raising my infinite repeater Hellbores, I began to fire upon both the alien and the hedgehog.

Both of the aggressors disappeared for a moment and then reappeared near their ring, which began to float ahead of them again. The hedgehog's eyes seemed to burn red as they focused their efforts for a new blast. I brought all of my Hellbores to bear and continued to fire, opening up missile tubes and also launching concussion missiles. The missiles detonated in airbursts around them, dissipating some of the gas. Their focus was broken, but they kept teleporting in the air. At least they weren't firing on me with those beams again.

I diverted the primary Hellbores back towards firing upon the comet, more pieces of it coming apart and shattering. Its two defenders even dared to try to get up close, but my repeaters chased them away, forcing them to move out before they'd get hit by the plasma. It seemed to be a stalemate, so far where they were concerned. The hedgehog growled and then disappeared with the jewels, as his leader continued to evade. 

There was another, sudden gravitational shift as another body was moved out of its normal place in orbit. I detected the ARK now, right above us. Shadow reappeared and then grasped his leader's sleeve before disappearing again. Within minutes, the ARK began to reveal massive cannon, part of the armament that I found in the archive. The emeralds were now ringed around the muzzle of the weapon as its own beam began to charge. Then the earlier beam pattern that they had hit me with joined with it.

The combined output slammed and punctured into my hull, striking my reactor. Everything went dark for a moment before the emergency backups came on. Radiation was now leaking out and my repair drones were scattering away, starting to attempt to repair the damage. The beam continued to cut through, taking out two of my primary Hellbores and most of my infinite repeaters. Then it hit my personality core.

My chances did no-

Maria rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling, the light from the combined beam causing her to cover her eyes. Instinctively, she crawled away towards a portion that was not breached yet. A display of some sort came on and pointed her towards the Bolo's Backup Command Center. Damage reports were flooding in on the flatscreen monitors that stood in for the holo-projectors. The one that scared her was the line that said "Core Personality: Offline". She sat down in her command chair and allowed its neural link to trigger. 

"_I need you Tails!"_

She was met with nothing but emptiness. Opening her eyes and severing the link, she leaned in and called up a complete schematic of the Bolo. Then she switched over to the weapons systems, directing the primary Hellbore to continue to fire upon the comet, but leaving everything else alone. She sat there and buried her face into her hands. Suddenly, the beam stopped and then something hurtled through the hull, stopping in the Command Center. Maria lowered her hands and looked at the intruder.

Shadow's eyes glowed red as he narrowed them, the woman looking unfamiliar to him. "It looks like I broke your little tank, bitch." Maria stepped down from the chair and wiped her eyes, rage and sorrow steeling her will to face him. "How dare you," she snarled, tightening her fists. "Of all of the people I have known all my life, to do the things that you have done. To speak to me the way you are now. You have betrayed our trust. You are a disgrace to your creator's legacy."

"What do you even know about my creator?" The hedgehog crossed his arms as Maria stepped back towards the control station. "I know a lot of things about you Shadow. I was there when you were made. You were supposed to be an instrument of peace and hope, but now you're just a traitor to all that is good. If I had known this was how things would turn out to be, I would have just let them take you and put you down like the animal you are."

She started to type commands that Tails had explained to her as part of her education in that fifty year recuperative sleep. Shadow stared at the monitors and heard the tank's VLS tubes open up. The internal magazine shifted as the concussion missiles were exchanged for a more potent yield, nuclear missiles. Another screen showed targeting information. The majority of the missile volley looked like it was set to hit the comet and the ARK. A remainder was set to impact upon the Bolo itself.

Maria turned to look at the hedgehog and set her hand over the keyboard. "All it takes now is one command. One command Shadow, to destroy that comet and your master and the bastardization that you've made the ARK into. As well as this tank. This robot, this synthetic weapon, has shown more compassion, more emotion and more loyalty to humanity than what you could ever show. His hull will become our grave, Shadow. And the Earth will be lost to you."

"If that's what you think," The hedgehog began to ready himself to pounce, but then Maria's next words came not just from her mouth, but also from the internal speakers of the center with static.

"From Hell's heart I stab at thee. For Hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee," she said, deadly soft. Then she raised her head and stared the hedgehog in the eyes and for the first time in her life, she bellowed at him before hitting the key that would begin her counterattack:

"I am Commander Maria Robotnik, operator of Combat Unit D-2092, Unit MLS of the Line!"

Shadow froze dead in his tracks as Maria stood there, the barrage of missiles streaking up into the air and entering the depressions that the Hellbores had made into the Black Comet and the ARK. Once they were at altitude, they exploded. The combined explosion had also enveloped the alien leader, not even giving him a moment to shout in defiance. The emeralds began to fall to the Earth. Shadow bared his teeth and watched the track of the final missiles that Maria had launched. Growling, he launched himself at her before the hull rocked itself with the firing of the primary Hellbore and the cycling of the secondaries. Knocked down, the hedgehog got back up, but Maria wasn't paying attention. The final strike was decapitated by the Hellbores and the regular lighting began to turn on.

Hidden point defense systems, smaller anti-personnel Hellbores popped up around the hedgehog from all directions. The monitors showed the face of what appeared to be an adult Mobian fox with glowing blue eyes. The visualization curled his lips into a satisfied smile.

"I am Combat Unit D-2092, Unit MLS of the Line." Tails' voice boomed in the chamber. "And _we_ demand _your_ unconditional surrender."


End file.
